OLLU's extreme makeover a success

After 2 1/2 years of painstaking restoration, Main Building has emerged from its extreme makeover a total knockout.

By Melissa Ludwig

Published 9:48 pm, Thursday, November 11, 2010

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Main Building used to be described as historic but funky. The restoration showcases the vintage character while bringing the 1895 building into the 21st century.

Main Building used to be described as historic but funky. The restoration showcases the vintage character while bringing the 1895 building into the 21st century.

OLLU's extreme makeover a success

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Historic, but funky.

In a phrase, that's how students, faculty and staff describe Our Lady of the Lake University's historic Main Building before a devastating fire ripped through it in May 2008. Built in 1895, the building wore modernity like an ill-fitting dress - ceilings were dropped to accommodate electrical wiring, walls were thrown up in an ad hoc fashion and unsightly window units heated and cooled the drafty building.

After 2 1/2 years of painstaking restoration, Main Building has emerged from its extreme makeover a total knockout - from the gleaming original tile floors and chocolate wainscoting on the stairwells to the modern computer ports and whiteboards in classrooms.

"It has been worth the wait. I can't express how happy I am to be home," said Roger Soto, a 21-year-old senior at OLLU and a tour guide for the building. "There is ambience now, there is more light. It will add a lot of life to an old building."

Today, OLLU is hosting a blessing and dedication at 6 p.m. to celebrate Main Building's $21 million restoration.

Sparked by an electrical short on the fourth floor, the fire stunned the OLLU community and made national headlines. In the years preceding, the small Catholic institution had been quietly struggling to recruit students and make payroll.

When tragedy struck, all eyes turned toward OLLU. Wallets began to open. Students became more interested in attending. Today, enrollment is rising and more than $9 million has been raised to rebuild Main and improve the university.

"If there is to be virtue in what was a really awful fire, the virtue of it is that we had no loss of life and that it has strengthened this campus," said OLLU President Tessa Martinez Pollack. "We have more to offer our students. It was almost as if the fire was cathartic for helping us recognize what our place is in this community."

The fire toppled a spire and ruined much of the interior, but did not compromise the hardy cypress beams. Working with a clean slate, architects from Kell Muñoz pored over the photographic archive.

In the lobby, they discovered a third wood archway that had been torn down to accommodate a wall. They hired Román Peña, a local artisan, to create an exact replacement, restoring the lobby to its original design.

Throughout the first floor, workers protected the colorful tile the Sisters of Divine Providence - the university's founding order - had purchased by sewing garments and baking cookies.

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Under the direction of Bartlett Cocke General Contractors, workers knocked out drop ceilings on most floors, exposing high ceilings with pressed tin, hallway and window arches, and carved columns. When possible, the original wood was recycled for use in the wainscoting and thick crown molding.

To modernize the building, the team put in new plumbing and electrical wiring, a central heating and air conditioning system, energy-efficient windows and lighting, men's and women's bathrooms on all floors and a fire safety sprinkler system.

The student newspaper offices occupy a vaulted space with three rooms and a view of the courtyard, and a brand-new television studio sits next door. Former classrooms are now common areas for students and have study nooks in circular turrets that used to be storage spaces.

The team recreated the fallen spire and crested railing behind a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes that survived the fire.

The transition has been tough, Pollack said. Displaced from 64,000 square feet of space, students and staff had to squeeze into other areas of the campus, including an old elementary school across the street.

"You could not really use the bathroom because it was so small, your feet stuck out underneath the stalls," Soto said.

All in all, the fire loss was $29 million, including displacement costs, said Dan Yoxall, a university spokesman.

Insurance paid $21 million, but just to replace the building as it was. To fund upgrades, the university has raised nearly $3 million and aims to raise $1.6 million more. OLLU also partnered with Capital One Bank to land $4 million through the federal government's New Markets Tax Credit Program, which encourages private investment in low-income communities.

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On Wednesday night, the university hosted a party for the builders, donors and Sisters of Divine Providence.

"I have been in banking for over 20 years and last night was the pinnacle of my career," said Mark Koshnick, market president at Capital One. "Main was a tragedy turned into an opportunity."